Muncie police body cameras coming soon

Muncie Police officers respond to a shots fired call in this January 2013 photo. MPD will equip officers with body cameras in a few months thanks to funding from the Muncie Redevelopment Commission.(Photo: The Star Press)Buy Photo

The city this week awarded a contract to an Arizona company to outfit most Muncie Police Department officers with body cameras, which will be used to record interactions between police and members of the public, Chief Steve Stewart said.

"My goal is to have them in place in four months," Stewart told The Star Press. "We have a lot to do before we can deploy them."

Body cameras have been in the news in recent months because of incidents in which police interacted with citizens — particularly in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City — with fatal results. While citizen groups have advocated for police body cameras, law enforcement officials like Stewart have said officers want them to accurately record their daily activities.

"It's a big deal," Stewart said.

The Muncie Redevelopment Commission recently offered to help pay for the cameras. Two companies submitted bids to the MRC: Taser International of Arizona and Digital Ally of Kansas. MRC director Todd Donati said the bids differed somewhat in format, with Digital Ally bidding on price per unit and Taser bidding a total price for the 90 cameras and other elements needed to set up the system.

Donati said the MRC accepted Taser's bid, which works out to about $77,040 a year for five years. The total cost, Donati said, would be more than $380,000 over five years and would include not only 90 cameras but charging and docking stations for each, software and cloud-based storage.

MPD will pursue grants and other funding to assume some of the cost initially underwritten by the redevelopment commission.

Stewart said the department will not only need to prepare cameras and docking stations — with Internet connectivity for the latter — and train officers but also implement policies for their use.

"We're going to need new policies and procedures for their use," Stewart said.

Stewart said he expected that officers would activate their cameras at the start of their shift or when en route to a call.

"I think it's going to be like any other thing. The guys will get used to it and it will be second nature, like turning your portable (radio) on when you get out of the car."

At the end of an officer's shift, he or she will return the camera to its dock and the day's video will be uploaded.

"That's all stored in the cloud," Stewart said.

Contact Keith Roysdon at 765-213-5828 and follow him on Twitter: @keithroysdon